Govt making efforts to resolve Toyota factory issue: Hebbar

The Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd plant in Bidadi, near Bengaluru. BLOOMBERG

Labour Minister Shivaram Hebbar assured the Legislative Assembly that the government will continue to make efforts to resolve the workers’ stir at the Toyota-Kirloskar facility in Bidadi near Bengaluru that reached its 85th day on Tuesday.

“The government has taken enough steps to resolve the deadlock. Four meetings have been held so far, including one under the chief minister’s chairmanship,” Hebbar said. “There’s no prestige issue for the government and we want to take both the company and workers together.”

Hebbar was responding to this issue raised by BJP legislator G Karunakar Reddy during Zero Hour.

“The Toyota company has started an inquiry against 64 people. The workers say that the 64 people should be reinstated while the inquiry can go on. But the company says they’ll be taken back after the inquiry is completed. This is the deadlock,” Hebbar said.

According to Hebbar, as many as 1,896 workers out of the total 3,415 have reported back to work. “On Monday, 181 new workers came back to work,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah urged the government to put an end to the deadlock soon. “The complaint is that Toyota being a Japanese company is enforcing Japanese laws on the workers. Some 66 people have been suspended and eight people have been dismissed without a strong reason, according to the employees,” he said, urging Yediyurappa to chair one more meeting to resolve the issue.